Be the Leader Teams Love to Follow
Startups provide business leaders with new products, services, and new revenue models, but leadership startups can only be built by entrepreneurs who are themselves leaders, and who incent leadership in…
Leadership Posts
The World Doesn’t Owe You Funding
Where did this pervasive sense of entitlement in our culture come from? I’ve written about this before, but I was surprised again recently at a conference for startups when a…
8 Signs of Trouble in Startup Paradise
Starting a business is a lot like starting a marriage. At first, all parties are in dreamland, with a vision of changing the world, having lots of fun, and raking…
Laying the Bedrock of your Startup’s Culture
I’m seeing a renewed appreciation of culture and values in business these days. Maybe it’s just another example of nature abhorring a vacuum, but I prefer to think it’s a…
Challenge Stale Startup Assumptions
I’m a big fan of the old adage "There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers." We have all heard questions that begin, "This may be a dumb question, but..."…
Multiple Intelligences Contribute to Success
I’ve long believed that entrepreneurs are different. We all know successful entrepreneurs who dropped out of school, and people with high IQs that cannot manage a business. I used to…
Personal Integrity is Easy to Spot
As an entrepreneur, your personal integrity is critical for getting and keeping the support of investors and team members, and your company’s integrity is critical for getting and keeping customers…
The Art of Saying ‘No’
Entrepreneurs have to know when and how to say ‘no,’ and be good at delivering the message. All startup leaders are besieged with requests for their time, attention, talent, money,…
The Seven Traits of a Role Model
At its core, all businesses are just people carrying out an idea. It’s never the other way around – there is no idea so big that it doesn’t need people…
The Nine Learnable Principles of Leadership
Creating and building a business is not a one-man show. It requires a team effort. Building trust and confidence among key players, enhances communication. A functional team will ultimately attract…